


Coda.

by lone_lilly



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-21
Updated: 2006-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-11 17:05:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lone_lilly/pseuds/lone_lilly





	Coda.

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

  
[ga: addison](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/ga:+addison), [ga: addison/mark](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/ga:+addison/mark), [ga: derek](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/ga:+derek), [ga: derek/addison](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/ga:+derek/addison), [ga: mark](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/ga:+mark), [grey's anatomy](http://la-scapigliata.dreamwidth.org/tag/grey%27s+anatomy)  
  
  
---|---  
  
Coda.

**Title:** Coda.  
**Fandom:** _Grey's Anatomy_  
**Characters:** Addison, Derek, and Mark.  
**Prompt:** Addison/Mark, outside.  
**Word Count:** 732.  
**Rating:** PG.  
**Spoilers:** Characters through 2x18. No real spoilers though.

for [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/pirateygoodness/profile)[**pirateygoodness**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/pirateygoodness/).

  
Derek and Addison prided themselves on being the perfect couple. They were successful. They had plenty of friends of upstanding character. They were wealthy. They were in love.

And they knew their success was all in the little details. The way they treated their patients. The way they treated their families. The way they treated each other.

Derek and Addison made a promise to themselves when they first married that they'd always put each other first. And it was a rule they were particularly proud of. When people looked at them admiringly and asked what their secret was, they'd always explain about Skyline Thursdays.

Skyline Thursdays was Derek's idea all the way back in med school and it was just the sort of thing that he'd think up, the sort of thing that made Addison roll her eyes while inwardly falling in love with him a little bit more.

The idea was regardless of whatever else they had going on-- surgeries, charity events, family matters-- they'd always meet for lunch and conversation on the Empire State building at one o'clock on Thursday. No cancellations. No exceptions.

And because they were the sort of goal-oriented people they were, Skyline Thursdays was a phenomenal success for nearly seven years. And because they were so wrapped up in their own perfection, they didn't even notice when it started to crumble.

It happened easily enough: one Thursday Derek couldn't talk for long because he needed to type up some of his post-surgery notes, and a few Thursdays after that Addison had to leave early because one of her higher-profile cases was expected to deliver at any moment.

And after awhile neither of them even noticed how little time they were actually spending together and how often they were simply going through the motions. Oh, sure they still met for lunch every Thursday but it was out of habit more than anything else, and neither particularly cared if the other stuck around for very long.

They were accustomed to eating by their selves and the point was that they were still trying at least, right?

Perhaps it's not so much pride that cometh before the fall, as it is indifference.

It probably should have occurred to Addison that inviting her husband's best friend (and by proxy, her own) to partake in Skyline Thursdays might not have been such a great idea. But when he called her one afternoon, just moments after Derek had left for a seminar, to ask her what time they were all heading out to the Hamptons that weekend, she just happened to glance down at the uneaten sandwiches sitting in the picnic basket and thought "Well, why not?"

So, thirty minutes later Mark was there with her and that was fine because he was _Mark_, and neither one of them thought it important enough to tell Derek.

In fact, it never occurred to her to tell her husband that once or twice every month Mark would end up on top of the Empire State building with her, usually after Derek had rushed off or cancelled altogether.

Because she and Derek were happy together. They were still trying.

And by the time, nearly three years later, that Mark finally got around to pushing Addison's hair away from her face and letting his eyes linger on her mouth a little too long when they were both supposed to be looking out at the Statue of Liberty, well, she was already madly in love with both her perfect, successful husband, and his best friend who actually made the time for her every Thursday (and if she were really being introspective about it, would realize she'd been making the time for him as well).

So she kissed him. And he kissed her back.

Right there on top of all of New York and then even more in the taxi back to the brownstone Derek had bought her for their eighth anniversary. And still more in the hallway back to her bedroom, and they took it quite a bit further on top of her marital bed.

And it wasn't until he told her he loved and she repeated it back to him that she turned her head and noticed her husband watching them both.

It wasn't until _that_ moment, the one where her husband looked at her not with jealousy or anger or even hatred but with disappointment that she realized it had been a long time since her marriage had been perfect.


End file.
